14 killed, 68 injured in attacks in Iraq

KIRKUK, Iraq, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people were killed and 68 others wounded in shootings and bombings, including suicide bombings against Kurdish security forces, in Iraq on Wednesday, the police and medics said.

The deadliest attacks occurred in the morning in and near the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, when two suicide bombers and a car bomb detonated and left a total of four killed and 53 wounded.

In one of the attacks, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive- laden car at the entrance of the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a Kurdish party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in central Kirkuk, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blast killed one of the Kurdish security guards and wounded 40 people -- most of whom were Kurdish security members, known as Peshmerga, the source said, adding that the blast destroyed part of the office building.

Rescuers and residents gather near a bombing site at the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Kirkuk, Iraq, on May 8, 2013.(Xinhua/Dena Assad)

Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated near a Kurdish security patrol in southwestern Kirkuk, leaving one security member killed and six others wounded, he said.

Another suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint at the entrance of a Kurdish security base near the town of Daquq, some 50 km south of Kirkuk, killing two Peshmerga members and wounding seven others and a civilian, the source added.

The ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk and its capital Kirkuk City are part of the disputed areas between the Kurds and both Arabs and Turkomans.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest near a crowd of policemen and civilians in the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian and wounding three, a police source told Xinhua.

Elsewhere, unidentified gunmen clashed with policemen at a checkpoint in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, leaving three policemen killed and two wounded, while a gunman was killed by the clash and another captured, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.

In Baghdad, gunmen using silenced weapons shot a taxi driver in Jamia district in western the capital before they fled the scene, an Interior Ministry source said.

Also in the capital, two people were killed and eight wounded in two separate bomb blasts in northern Baghdad, the source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, an Iraqi army soldier was killed and two wounded in a roadside bomb explosion which hit their vehicle near the town of Qara-Tappa, some 170 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

Violence and high-profile bomb attacks are still common in Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.

from XINHUA
Editor: Mu Xuequan
2013-05-08 17:10:58

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At least 45 killed in Iraq attacks

A wave of attacks in Iraq on Thursday killed at least 45 people and wounded more than 180 people, security and medical officials said.



from AL ARABIYA

Last Updated: Fri Aug 17, 2012 00:00 am (KSA) 21:00 pm (GMT)

The deadliest attacks struck in and around Baghdad, where 18 people were killed in multiple bombings.

Attacks also struck Tal Afar, Kirkuk, Daquq, Dibis, Kut, Al-Garma, Al-Baaj, Badush, Tuz Khurmatu, Mosul, Taji, Khales and Baquba.

The violence was the deadliest since July 23, when 113 were killed in what was the deadliest day of nationwide unrest in two and a half years.

Thursday's violence took to 190 the number of people killed in attacks in August, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical officials.

While violence has decreased from its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common across Iraq. There were attacks on 27 of the 31 days in July, and there has been at least one shooting or bombing every day this month.

Official figures put the number of people killed in attacks in July at 325, the highest monthly death toll since August 2010.

In the north Baghdad neighborhood of Husseiniyah, a car bomb killed at least six people and wounded 26, according to an interior ministry official and a medical source.

Later in the evening gunmen with silenced weapons attacked a checkpoint in Massud, north of Baghdad, killing at least six soldiers and wounding seven others, security forces and medical officials said.

Meanwhile in the town of Daquq, north of Baghdad in Kirkuk province, a suicide attacker blew himself up at an anti-terrorism department’s compound, according to provincial police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader.

In the province’s eponymous capital, meanwhile, at least four car bombs were set off across the city -- including two at the offices of the state-owned North Oil Company.

“I came to investigate one of the attacks near the company compound,” said police Colonel Abdullah Kadhim, head of Kirkuk city’s sniffer dog unit.

“Suddenly, another bomb went off near me, and it damaged lots of cars and company property inside the parking lot.”

Kadhim suffered wounds to his leg.

Provincial health chief Sadiq Omar Rasul put the toll from the attacks in Daquq and Kirkuk city at eight dead and 56 wounded. Qader said the victims included six police killed in the Daquq attack.

The violence in ethnically-mixed Kirkuk city was concentrated in its Kurdish-majority areas, and came on the anniversary of the founding of Iraq’s most powerful Kurdish party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

In the same province, two roadside bombs near the home of a police captain in the town of Dibis killed his brother and wounded four others, including the captain himself, police and a doctor at nearby Kirkuk hospital said.

In Kut, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded on Thursday evening, police Colonel Dhargham al-Assadi said. Five people were killed and 20 others wounded, according to Dhia al-Din Jalil al-Ibboudi, the head of the Kut health directorate.

Attacks also struck Al-Garma, Al-Baaj, Badush, Tuz Khurmatu, Mosul, Taji, Khales and Baquba, leaving seven dead and dozens wounded.

In Al-Garma, near the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, four policemen were killed and three others wounded in a shooting at a checkpoint, according to police Major Enes Mahmud and Dr Omar Dalli at Fallujah hospital.

As emergency responders and civilians rushed to the scene, a roadside bomb exploded, wounding four others.

Gunmen shot dead two people driving in Al-Baaj, west of Mosul, while two children were wounded by bombs that targeted the under-construction house of a police officer in Badush, also west of the restive north Iraq city, police Second Lieutenant Abed Ghayib and Dr Mohammed Tawfik said.

Three roadside bombs exploded in Tuz Khurmatu near the home of a district chief, or mukhtar, killing his wife and leaving him and his three sons wounded, according to police and a local medic.

Explosions in Mosul, Taji, Khales and on the outskirts of Baquba left 22 others wounded, security and medical officials said.

A day earlier, 13 people were killed in attacks north of Baghdad.

On Monday, British security firm AKE Group warned that “terrorists in Iraq may be planning mass casualty explosive attacks against large gatherings of civilians to mark the end of Ramadan later this week.”

“We haven’t received any specific intelligence on the matter but they (insurgents) may be ‘saving up’ their willing bombers for the closing period of the month, due around 17-18 August,” AKE analyst John Drake said.

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